Dragon Ball Super – Part 7 Review
Dragon Ball Super Part 7 contains Episodes 79 – 91 of the anime, beginning the final arc of the TV series (unless you count the movie!) The ruler of the multiverse Zeno and … Zeno, the ruler of a multiverse that he destroyed before moving to this one in the last arc, have decided to hold a grand tournament between 8 out of the 12 universes in this multiverse, with each universe having a team of 10. Sadly the other-dimensional Zeno doesn’t know what a martial arts fight is, so the Zeno of THIS multiverse decides to hold three showcase matches between Universe 7 (“our” universe) and Universe 9. This is where the story begins, and it doesn’t get any less crazy to describe!
So the three exhibition matches are where the switch to a new animation team becomes apparent, as they are fluidly animated, nicely detailed and constantly on-model… and exciting to watch! This is a slight spoiler for the end of this set, but I’ll say this is our only chance to see Majin Buu in action (in the entire series!) and it doesn’t disappoint. This is also where Gohan starts to show a bit more of his old self, or at least show a bit more fighting prowess again. It’s a very entertaining set of four episodes.
We then transfer to Goku having to recruit seven more members of his Universe’s team, with himself, Buu and Gohan already recruited. This is where the filler-like episodes make a return, with Goku travelling around the Earth (just the Earth rather than the whole Universe 7, I guess because he’s biased like that…) searching for his friends and recruiting them. People like Piccolo and Krillin come relatively easily, Vegeta only comes along when his daughter is born, which then happens immediately thanks to some very weird magic from Angel Whis, and people like Tien and Master Roshi need a little convincing due to lack of self-confidence, but soon join. They all get an episode or two focusing on them, which is refreshing, given that Super often just focused on Goku and Vegeta, though Tien fans may want to lower their expectations…
By the way, this may seem like spoilers, but the line-up for Universe 7 is featured in the Opening, so these episodes are even more pointless, really! The last member of the group is Android 17, whom we haven’t seen since the Cell Arc of Dragon Ball Z. His double bill of episodes features a breath-taking fight between himself and Goku, showing off the new animation team even more. I honestly can’t praise them enough; the jump in quality is extremely noticeable, it’s just a shame it happened for the final arc rather than, well, from the start!
The newly introduced intro set to the theme of “Limit-Break x Survivor” by Kiyoshi Hikawa continues to kick these episodes off, while the ending “Aku no Tenshi to Seigi no Akuma” (An Evil Angel and the Righteous Devil) by THE COLLECTORS continues up to Episode 84, where we switch to the aggravatingly catchy “Boogie Back” by Miyu Inoue. The extras are clean openings, endings and trailers, as well as interviews with Chuck “Android 17” Huber, and … ADR Director Ramy Pickings.
So Dragon Ball Super Part 7 nets you some good, well animated fights, and lots of shorter stories. If you’re a longtime fan of the series there are some fun call-backs (especially in the Tien and Roshi-centric episodes) but in general Part 7 is all set up for the near endless action that’s to come…
